Why hasnt the US changed to the metric system?

I did not know the British pint was a bit larger than ours but thank you for that. I have a British pint glass and it's bigger than anything I get when I order a pint here.

As to the original question, I think most of us see conversion as working for no payment. The only reason I ever see advanced for conversion is that the rest of the world uses the metric system. You'll never get americans to do something simply by telling them the rest of the world does it.

1 min = 100 sec? wrote:

Speaking of arbitrary measurement schemes, what do European clocks look like?

That's an excellent point! See, America followed the rest of the world with clocks - why not with the metric system?

I can answer this question with one word; nearsightedness. The benefits of having a superior measurement system are small, but constant, and the costs of switching are quite large, but society only has to pay it once. There are other secondary causes, like the fact that it is easier to calculate the costs of switching than it is to calculate the savings, and the fact that most people are somewhat selfish and therefore unwilling to do something that may not benefit them but will help their decedents.

For the record, America does use the metric system, as almost everything published by the academic community is in the SI system, but everyone still has to learn the damn English system as well. The English system easily wastes millions of dollars per year in wasted time on calculation conversions; it wastes more on mistakes similar to the Mars probe. America's use of the English system is a standing monument to our pride and arrogance.

I could go on for pages on how apathy displays more arrogance than any other action, but I won't.

Americans are too busy procrastinating about rights to worry about any changes that would significantly improve their systems.

The arrogant part comes from believing that they have it right and the rest of the world has no clue.

The sad part is they see a need to use force to change other peoples stance.

You have to live in a place where the metric system is everywhere, and "think" metric.

But once you do, you realize how inane Imperial measurements are.

the equivalence across units is what makes it relevant.

1kg = 1l of water at sea level, at 3 degrees C (roughly accurate)

1 calorie = energy required to raise 1cc of water 1C

Temp, volume, distance, all related, and base 10.

even paper measurements - A4 vs "Letter size"

The military does everything in metric, and for a very good reason.

Wendell Gee wrote:

Reedin Ritein Figurin wrote:

People in the U.S. can't ever read, write, and do arithmetic. The U.S. is one of the dumbest countries in the world. How do you expect people in the U.S. to handle two systems.

The US can't handle one system. Tell me how many people actually understand the Imperial system. My students, who tell me how hard metrics are, don't have the vaguest idea about the Imperial system.

You are the worst teacher ever. Congrats.

Off the Grid wrote:

You have to live in a place where the metric system is everywhere, and "think" metric.

But once you do, you realize how inane Imperial measurements are.

the equivalence across units is what makes it relevant.

1kg = 1l of water at sea level, at 3 degrees C (roughly accurate)

1 calorie = energy required to raise 1cc of water 1C

Temp, volume, distance, all related, and base 10.

even paper measurements - A4 vs "Letter size"

The military does everything in metric, and for a very good reason.

All systems of units make sense.

First, calorie isn't even the SI unit, it's joule.

Zero degrees Fahrenheit is defined as the temperature at which an equal volume of salt and water freeze (so salting the sidewalk won't really work).

A foot is roughly the size of your shoe, which is convenient when you're working on a construction site.

An acre is the amount of land an ox can plow in a day.

A gallon is the amount of milk one should use in the gallon milk challenge.

etc etc etc

Here's a cool box from wikipedia:

Farm derived units of measurement:

The rod is a historical unit of length equal to 5.5 yards. It may have originated from the typical length of a mediaeval ox-goad.

The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the distance a team of oxen could plow without resting. This was standardized to be exactly 40 rods.

An acre was the amount of land tillable by one man behind one ox in one day. Traditional acres were long and narrow due to the difficulty in turning the plow.

An oxgang was the amount of land tillable by one ox in a plowing season. This could vary from village to village, but was typically around 15 acres.

A virgate was the amount of land tillable by two oxen in a plowing season.

A carucate was the amount of land tillable by a team of eight oxen in a plowing season. This was equal to 8 oxgangs or 4 virgates.

asasmzcxv wrote:

All systems of units make sense.

A foot is roughly the size of your shoe, which is convenient when you're working on a construction site.

Of course...I feel safer knowing all structures are measured based on the shoe size of the guys on the site. Also as most of the world works on construction sites this is very pertinent.

And if they are not doing that, then.......

asasmzcxv wrote:

An acre is the amount of land an ox can plow in a day.

Very useful for all the farmers and livestock owners amongst us.

Here on planet earth, however, imperial/analogue measurements are useless.

Other "improvements" the American public has rejected:

-Esperanto

-Dvorak keyboard

-Mac OS

-35 hour workweek

-Socialized medicine

-Soccer

-Mayo on french fries

Out.

because we like to be f***ing different. america rules so therefore we have to have a different set of measurements from all the mediocre countries.

You're right - I have no idea the costs of changing, and not changing.So you think the original estimate of "millions of dollars", as big as 1 million is, was a little low -- by many, many orders of magnitude? It's actually way more than $25 billion? I wonder how did other countries afford it?You wouldn't have to perform a complete retrofit (e.g. retrofitting odometers of existing cars), so you could eliminate some of the costs.But I don't believe the cost of conversion factored much into why Americans didn't convert. Most Americans didn't buy into it because they didn't see why they should.Did you know that an English billion is an American trillion? And an American billion is an English 1000 million. Talk about confusion!Regarding European clocks, I don't know what you mean. Every European clock I've ever seen looks like every ordinary American clock, except for the convention of using a 24 hour time format.I guess, by your handle "1 min = 100 sec", you mean a decimal clock? Also called the French Revolutionary Clock? I've never ever seen one, neither in America nor Europe, nor even heard of it before now.I've seen Excel treating time as floating point numbers though.

1 min = 100 sec? wrote:

I write software for measuring manufactured goods and see blueprints for all kinds of things as a result. You have no idea what the cost of changing would be if you think losing a $400 million dollar satellite even figures in this argument. Hell, I love the metric system, but the cost of this change is many, many orders of magnitude larger than a satellite.

Here's one small example: tell me the cost of retrofitting all the interstates with metric markers, speed limit signs and car odometers. Every single sign giving a distance in miles would have to be replaced in a fairly short time period. It would probably be cheaper to just send a Tom Tom to every registered car in the entire country. 250 million cars[1]*$100/tomtom=$25 billion.

Speaking of arbitrary measurement schemes, what do European clocks look like?

ilgore wrote:

Other "improvements" the American public has rejected:

-Esperanto

-Dvorak keyboard

-Mac OS

-35 hour workweek

-Socialized medicine

-Soccer

-Mayo on french fries

Out.

Oh very funny you dumbass. The most important fact is that in the US, everybody gets free healthcare and nobody freaks out when the medical bills arrive. God forbid being scared to go to dentist because of outrageous costs... Your healthcare is just the picture of perfectness.Right. That's why you have elected Obama, who had promised you that one of his priorities would be to transform the healthcare system.

And how about, where you got that 35 hour workweek? French mistress told you about that? We, in the rest of the Europe, prefer 40 hour work weeks, or rather 42,5 h, so you have time to have some lunch (not in Mc'D). As compared to US empoyees, those from Europe have some time to live their life at no worse living conditions and with higher disposable income. So carry on with your 100h workweeks (most of which is spend on 2 h lunches and 19 cofee breaks a day, or 5 h worthless everyday meetings of so called managers for everything) and see you at your funeral when you hit 45 y. I'll be your only mourner, since you would have no family, and your third divorced wife would not bother to come, since she had not seen you a moment apart from your 2 day honeymoon, which you had to cut short because of your workaholic boss. Ha.

Sports choice is a preference choice, but soccer is by far more interesting than bunch of armored f****** touching their asses. But let's leave it - I'll watch soccer with the rest of the planet's 5,7 billion people, and you watch your football.

Mayo on french fries? Ketchup on french fries? Hell, why french fries, most of the people outside of the US are not 200kg fat slobs (or 450lbs fatasses if you want your rough conversion), also because we don't eat french fries (what a stupid word, it's pommes frittes, you idiots) and walk several kilometers a day for daily errands.

Well, Esperanto - how about some proper Latin to begin with and have some basic understanding of the grammar (and your own language, you bunch of half wits). But that would be too much of foreign languages for you, because you have your 2 -y stint of 101 Spanish, from which you remember only 'Donde esta mi tequila?'

The metric system is easy to understand, not that your Imperial was a challenge for rocket scientist. I would kick everyone into nuts for questions like "well, ehm, how much is that in yards, square feet..." It shows how improper your school system is and what kind of idiots you let earn a college degree or higher.

But to not burst you bubble, stay ignorant, or better - stay out, as you had stated.

Because conservative talk radio hosts have successfully convinced a large portion of the American public that the Imperial system is written into the Bible, the Constitution, or both.

HRE wrote:

You'll never get americans to do something simply by telling them the rest of the world does it.

That's what I've been saying for years but it's the same shitty reason we hear about why we should like soccer.

Forrestchild wrote:

Sports choice is a preference choice, but soccer is by far more interesting than bunch of armored f****** touching their asses. But let's leave it - I'll watch soccer with the rest of the planet's 5,7 billion people, and you watch your football.

Yeah. Nothing like spending an hour and a half watching a thrilling 0 - 0 tie.

But lets leave it.

Well, it takes some appreciation of skills, but that would also require to actually watch the game and not stand in queques for hot dogs, nachos and beer, while your "favorite" team plays (or not, if there are 12 commercial breaks meanwhile) half of the 4 hour game.

Then the occassional 0-0 tie done in 90 minutes would not seem as boring as 4h junk food stuffing parade.

Football (all of it both American and Footie) is boring.

Its very difficult to learn/use metric unless it is all around you. Once you try it, you won't go back. But u still can only use it where it is understood.

What a pointless post. Either agree with me and present additional supporting points, or disagree with me and show me where I'm wrong. You've done neither.Look, if we were implementing a measurement system from scratch I'd say go metric to be on the same page as the rest of the world - and yes, it makes more sense for everything to be based on a 1-10 and 1-100 scale. But at this point it doesn't matter, the world functions just fine with the occasional conversion. Again, where is the big benefit?

A good example of the US's metric stupidity."K" is an abbreviation for Kelvin, "km" is the abbreviation for kilometer.

biggus dickus wrote:

I ran a 5K this weekend in the USA. What do you want, wicker?